The story begins in 1943 New York City, when Linus’ oldest brother Albie has just enlisted to fight in WWII. With Albie gone, Simon, the next brother down, will take over his job. Thus Linus will have to step into Simon’s shoes, literally and figuratively: literally because the family passes each precious pair of shoes down from one child to the next and figuratively because Linus is about to move into Simon’s old job of making deliveries for the family’s green grocery delivery service. Albie and Linus get along well with each other; Simon, not so much.

Linus is an imaginative kid who loves comic books—a relatively new genre that began in the 1930s—as does Albie. Before Albie leaves for boot camp, he entrusts Linus with the huge sum of two dollars to buy the next volumes in their favorite series while he’s away at war.

As the story unfolds, Linus delivers groceries, deals with his worries by conjuring up his alter ego (a comic book hero named Mister Superspeed) and ponders the role of art and imagination in a brutal world at war with itself. These are big issues for a 12-year-old to have to face. Along the way we learn about boogie-woogie, the future and a mysterious artist. But unless young readers or their parents already know about Mondrian and the name of his painting, Victory Boogie Woogie, though, they won’t discover who Mister Orange is based on until they read the lovingly detailed, excellent back matter.

So just who is Mister Orange? Modeled after renowned Dutch artist Piet Mondrian—who spent the war years in New York before dying of pneumonia in 1944—Mr. Orange is the family’s newest customer, who ordered a weekly crate of oranges from Simon right before Linus took over the route. (Since Simon did not get the customer’s name down on the order form clearly, Linus mentally christens him Mr. Orange.) They become unlikely friends of a sort, sharing an orange and a chat with each week’s delivery. Mister Orange tells Linus at one point, “If imagination were as harmless as you think, then the Nazis wouldn’t be so scared of it.”

2 thoughts on “#WorldKidLit Wednesday: Mister Orange”

I’ve been trying to get a copy of this for months via Book Depository and they keep on saying it’s not in stock / not available. Any way that the publisher can make sure that the distribution is easily accessible for us world wide?

How frustrating! I borrowed mine from the local public library. 🙂 While not everyone likes Barnes and Noble or Amazon, I see that both currently show the book as available (new and used), as do Abe Books, Thrift Books, and Half Price Books. (Powell’s does not.) Perhaps it’s just a supply issue for the Book Depository, in which case you might contact Enchanted Lion Books directly to alert them? Or perhaps one of the above book sellers delivers in your area? Hope that helps and best of luck!